Join the guard or go Active Duty

April 27th, 2013, 09:00 PM

Was wondering if joining the National Guard is a good idea. I want to finish college as soon as I can but I also want to go into the military for experience in Law Enforcement. I cannot find a job anywhere in this economy and is going to be difficult to pay for my school.. Should I just join the National Guard and go to college full time or should I go Full time Active duty in the Army and go to school later?

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I'm an 18 year old female.. starting college soon, majoring in Criminal Justice. Eventually I want to get into Law Enforcement (Police Officer). I know the military will give me the experience for that. But, right now I can't afford my entire tuition. Even though I would like to finish college as soon as I can. I don't have a civilian job, I've been looking for a job for over a year now....No luck because of this economy. I do not have much going on for me right now. I dont know what else to do that will give me experience in Law enforcement other than the military. I would like to be deployed aswell. I'm going back in forth between the Army National Guard or to go Active Duty.

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I'm an 18 year old female.. starting college soon, majoring in Criminal Justice. Eventually I want to get into Law Enforcement (Police Officer). I know the military will give me the experience for that. But, right now I can't afford my entire tuition. Even though I would like to finish college as soon as I can. I don't have a civilian job, I've been looking for a job for over a year now....No luck because of this economy. I do not have much going on for me right now. I dont know what else to do that will give me experience in Law enforcement other than the military. I would like to be deployed aswell. I'm going back in forth between the Army National Guard or to go Active Duty.

You do not need to go to college for criminal justice to be a cop. If employment is important to you, than go active duty. You would still be able to take some classes on the side here and there or online. But the consensus around here (as well as my own), is that majoring in criminal justice serves no purpose. You don't need the degree for the majority of law enforcement jobs, and there isn't too much else you can do with it. Around here we recommend accounting, engineering, anything "computer" ish, or nursing. Those are the majors that = a job, not just education...and lets face it, getting a job is the purpose of education.

I'm an 18 year old female.. starting college soon, majoring in Criminal Justice. Eventually I want to get into Law Enforcement (Police Officer). I know the military will give me the experience for that. But, right now I can't afford my entire tuition. Even though I would like to finish college as soon as I can. I don't have a civilian job, I've been looking for a job for over a year now....No luck because of this economy. I do not have much going on for me right now. I dont know what else to do that will give me experience in Law enforcement other than the military. I would like to be deployed aswell. I'm going back in forth between the Army National Guard or to go Active Duty.

You're very young. If I were your age I'd just go ahead and knock out a few years in active duty. You can always go the NG. Point being is you can take a few classes online while you're Regular Army and use those credits toward your undergrad degree when you're done with your AD contract. That way you can take advantage of the G.I. benefits and pay for college.

You're very young. If I were your age I'd just go ahead and knock out a few years in active duty. You can always go the NG. Point being is you can take a few classes online while you're Regular Army and use those credits toward your undergrad degree when you're done with your AD contract. That way you can take advantage of the G.I. benefits and pay for college.

I was going to write the same thing. OP, at this stage in your life, going active seems like the sensible solution.

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Yes we know. We can see a list of them every time we log in. Creating duplicate posts doesn't solve the problem either because then we have to go in and delete those.

Just think of the positive, it's job security

OP, joining AD might just serve you better then just going to school. It'll give a couple of years to really figure out what you want out of life. It also give some maturity for school and LE if that's still what you want.

You're very young. If I were your age I'd just go ahead and knock out a few years in active duty. You can always go the NG. Point being is you can take a few classes online while you're Regular Army and use those credits toward your undergrad degree when you're done with your AD contract. That way you can take advantage of the G.I. benefits and pay for college.

I think the general consensus OP is to go A/D for your particular situation. It'll serve you best and you can knock out some classes online or through your post's education office while you serve...